DIR- GUE We got bullied today :(

[lv2dive]

Please tell your wife not to think twice about those people!!!! Those are THE most comfy sweatshirts ever, mine is faded to pink I’ve worn it so much! Usually people outgrow that overzealous fervor before T1 but some people need a reason to think of themselves as better than others - that’s all about them, not about your wife.

That sucks that you had such a negative experience with an uninformed nut.

My wife had a similar experience last june well on a trip to point traverse.
She is a quite accomplished technical diver and instructor. She has no gue certs however she was cave trained by Larry green . Yah the same Larry green who certified Jared as an nacd cave instructor (oh the horror) back in the day when Jarrod lived in a single wide and drank PBR.

Anyway the Saturday was cold and miserable we got our dives in, but conditions were challenging.
A couple on the trip were newly minted fundemtals graduates. The husband was diving doubles with a 40 and a dry suit. and the wife was in a in a wet suit and rocking an eclipse wing with an aluminum 80 ( hands town my favorite rig to dive ever)
After a tough day on the water we all met back at the cottage for cocktails and a low fat project approved supper.

My wife had changed into her favorite comfy red GUE sweater when the couple asked her who she did her gue training with. She replied no one.
Well then why are you wearing that shirt? They asked." Cus its comfy" my wife replied. But the couple wouldn't let it go. For the next hour they kept at her almost offended that such a stroke would dare to put on that shirt.

Last I checked the only credentials you needed to buy a sweater from EE is a credit card and a tolarance for Doug Mundry.

During the dives that day my wife looked better in the water and managed the conditions with ease well the couple struggled to complete a simple recreational dives.

That couple left the next morning despite the improved conditions perhaps humbled by the abilities of my wife and the stab jacket wearing divers who were also on the trip.

This experience still resonates with us as it made her feel extremely uncomfortable.

 

[rjack321]

Yes, and arguing over pool diving...

But that's where all the magic happens!!!

 

[AJ]

That couple left the next morning despite the improved conditions perhaps humbled by the abilities of my wife and the stab jacket wearing divers who were also on the trip.

This experience still resonates with us as it made her feel extremely uncomfortable.

If there's one thing I realized during my Fundamentals training, it's the fact that that I was not as good a diver as I thought I was. Fundies made me a humble and much better diver, but certainly not the best diver in the world. There are loads of divers with different training who are much better and I can learn from.

And anyway, it's not about competition, but about having fun diving together is'nt it? I would say to your wife: never mind those people, ignore them. They're not even worth listening to with this kind of ego.

 

[KevinNM]

Last I checked the only credentials you needed to buy a sweater from EE is a credit card and a tolarance for Doug Mundry.

It’s Kyle now, Doug is the Santi rep for Halcyon.

 

[mainedvr]

When I was taking fundies I went to get my doubles filled at a LDS (they are cheap for the area for nitrox) anyhow, just in discussion it came up that I was getting ready for fundies, and the look on this guys face was off the charts. He said some dumb misinformed crap and I just went on about my business. He basically bashed the training as crazy as were the individuals (soon to be me I thought to myself). I write it off and just go about my business. I still go there for nitrox.

 

[RainPilot]

A not entirely off topic anecdote:

When I was a newly minted reconnaissance pilot flying small spotter planes, I landed at one of our bases for some resupply from a combat deployment. While I was waiting on the flight line, some of my fellow pilot's course graduates came out to preflight their light fighters for a training mission. They were just going solo on the jets, still a year or so from becoming actual fighter pilots.

The condescension of these young guys was palpable as they saw me in my dirty flight suit (no laundry on the front line ) sitting on the wing, got all sorts of comments about my "crappy little plane" and "don't you want to be a real pilot" etc. Said jokingly but these guys thought they were the shizness.

An older guy walks out, sees me there and diverts my way. "Here we go" I thought. He gets to me, big smiles, and asks how Im doing, admires the aircraft, tells me that he feels lucky to be able to do 600 knots and get away from the fire while I am stuck in it, comments on the guts it would take, wishes me well and strolls over to the students. I hear him telling them that they would be lucky to have the guts to do what I do, that they are still green and that I have been shot at more than they have hot breakfasts (true but I hadn't thought of it that way) so if he hears them talking crap about the pilots in other jobs he would rip them a new one.

When i got back from the deployment, I found out that he was a VERY respected combat pilot with multiple awards, widely viewed as our best fighter pilot in years.

As my career progressed, it became universally apparent to me that those with an entry-level qualification would always wax on about how they were better than everyone else. Once they had actually achieved something and seen the world, they were always much more accepting of everybody. We are all in this together, let's fly and let fly.

In most of these types of stories on SB, it seems to be the new GUE-F graduates that are all self-important while the real divers, the JJ's and so on, don't give two hoots about where you got your card from as long as you are safe and have fun.

 

[EireDiver606]

A not entirely off topic anecdote:

When I was a newly minted reconnaissance pilot flying small spotter planes, I landed at one of our bases for some resupply from a combat deployment. While I was waiting on the flight line, some of my fellow pilot's course graduates came out to preflight their light fighters for a training mission. They were just going solo on the jets, still a year or so from becoming actual fighter pilots.

The condescension of these young guys was palpable as they saw me in my dirty flight suit (no laundry on the front line ) sitting on the wing, got all sorts of comments about my "crappy little plane" and "don't you want to be a real pilot" etc. Said jokingly but these guys thought they were the shizness.

An older guy walks out, sees me there and diverts my way. "Here we go" I thought. He gets to me, big smiles, and asks how Im doing, admires the aircraft, tells me that he feels lucky to be able to do 600 knots and get away from the fire while I am stuck in it, comments on the guts it would take, wishes me well and strolls over to the students. I hear him telling them that they would be lucky to have the guts to do what I do, that they are still green and that I have been shot at more than they have hot breakfasts (true but I hadn't thought of it that way) so if he hears them talking crap about the pilots in other jobs he would rip them a new one.

When i got back from the deployment, I found out that he was a VERY respected combat pilot with multiple awards, widely viewed as our best fighter pilot in years.

As my career progressed, it became universally apparent to me that those with an entry-level qualification would always wax on about how they were better than everyone else. Once they had actually achieved something and seen the world, they were always much more accepting of everybody. We are all in this together, let's fly and let fly.

In most of these types of stories on SB, it seems to be the new GUE-F graduates that are all self-important while the real divers, the JJ's and so on, don't give two hoots about where you got your card from as long as you are safe and have fun.

I don’t really agree with the last paragraph as it’s not really true but I think as people get more experienced, their ego lessens at the same time.

 

[RainPilot]

I don’t really agree with the last paragraph as it’s not really true but I think as people get more experienced, their ego lessens at the same time.

Definitely agree with the ego reduction statement, but in my memory of reading and moderating these threads, its almost always GUE-F or at most T1 divers portrayed as being arrogant and condescending (minority of all F/T1 divers for sure) and almost never a T3/C3 diver.

This may be confirmation bias on my part, maybe @PfcAJ or @lv2dive or @mer can chip in, I am sure they notice the GUE topics a bit more closely than I do.

 

[EireDiver606]

Definitely agree with the ego reduction statement, but in my memory of reading and moderating these threads, its almost always GUE-F or at most T1 divers portrayed as being arrogant and condescending (minority of all F/T1 divers for sure) and almost never a T3/C3 diver.

This may be confirmation bias on my part, maybe @PfcAJ or @lv2dive or @mer can chip in, I am sure they notice the GUE topics a bit more closely than I do.

Yeah agreed there’s always a bad apple in every group.

 

[Compressor]

Unfortunately these kind of encounters occur frequently. There are always people who think they know better than others. They are in every organization. Another member (@Flashx45 ) here posted Zen diving and I thank them for it but follow it and free yourself of the ugly politics that has crept into scuba diving:

"
ZEN Diving

1. They did everything methodically, whether putting their gear together or deploying a SMB on a reel. They didn't necessarily move fast, just methodical.

2. They sometimes gave the appearance of nonchalance when diving, but close observation told me they were anything but nonchalant - their situational awareness of what was going on around them was, clearly to me, incredibly high. (Note: I also had insta-dive buddies who gave the impression of nonchalance, and they were. I'm not talking about these people)

3. They moved effortlessly through the water. Perfect buoyancy. Fish.

4. They knew what they did not know. Meaning, they knew they still had things to learn and improve on. They also knew every dive could kill them. On the post dive talk I would be amazed on what they critiqued themselves on as the dive seemed perfect to me.

5. They had dives numbering in the 1000s+. Usually in different conditions, locations,etc. They didn't necessarily have a lot of cert cards, just a lot of dives. One Zen Diver I met only had an Open Water Cert, but he had experience."